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Colin Selby

Orioles Activate Zach Eflin

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The Orioles have activated right-hander Zach Eflin from the injured list ahead of his start against the Angels this afternoon, per a team announcement. Right-hander Colin Selby was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for Eflin on the active roster. In an additional move, southpaw Trevor Rogers was activated from the injured list and optioned to Triple-A.

Eflin, 31, went on the shelf just over a month ago with what was described at the time as a “low-grade” lat strain. The right-hander has been a revelation for the Orioles ever since he was acquried from the Rays ahead of last year’s trade deadline. He pitched to a 2.60 ERA in nine starts down the stretch last year, and his first three starts of 2025 saw him post a 3.00 ERA despite an unusually small 11.8% strikeout rate. The Orioles were 5-6 after Eflin’s last start with the club, but since losing him from the front of their rotation the wheels have come off. The club has posted a brutal 9-18 record since then, however, and much of those struggles have been attributable to lackluster performances in the rotation.

Since the day Eflin went on the shelf, Baltimore has the worst rotation in baseball by FIP (6.10), and the third-worst by ERA (5.97). Tomoyuki Sugano has pitched quite well with a 2.72 ERA despite his 4.61 FIP and 14.2% strikeout rate, but that doesn’t appear to be particularly sustainable and the rest of the rotation has ERAs north of 5.00 across the board. Perhaps adding Eflin to the rotation ahead of Sugano can help stabilize things, particularly if he rediscovers the bat-missing abilities he flashed when he struck out 21.0% of opponents down the stretch last year. Even so, more reinforcements appear to be necessary if the Orioles are going to have a serious chance of getting back into the playoff picture.

One other potential rotation option was also activated from the IL today alongside Eflin: Rogers. Acquired from the Marlins in exchange for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby at last year’s trade deadline, Rogers struggled badly in four starts for the Orioles before being optioned to Triple-A late last year. He could have been in the mix for a rotation job this spring had he not suffered a kneecap subluxation in January that slowed his start of the season. He’s been ramping back up ever since, and is finally healthy enough to be activated from the shelf. With that being said, he’s currently set to act as Triple-A depth for the club rather than come up and pitch in the majors immediately. Perhaps that’s a sensible decision, seeing as he’s struggled to a 7.50 ERA across four rehab starts this year.

Making room for Eflin on the active roster is Selby, who made his big league debut with the Pirates back in 2023. He struggled to a 9.00 ERA in 24 innings of work, and since then has bounced between the Royals and Orioles organizations with just 10 2/3 frames in the majors total over the past two years. Most recently, he’s logged 3 2/3 innings of 4.91 ERA ball for Baltimore this year. He’ll head to Triple-A as a potential depth option for the birds going forward.

Orioles Outright Matt Bowman To Triple-A

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TODAY: Bowman accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A after clearing waivers, the Orioles announced.

MAY 8: The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Matt Bowman for assignment and recalled fellow righty Colin Selby from Triple-A Norfolk. Selby will give the O’s a fresh arm for today’s series finale in Minnesota, which is set to begin at 12:10pm CT. Selby was already on what was a full 40-man roster, so Baltimore now has a vacancy after designating Bowman.

Bowman, 33, pitched in each of the past two games against the Twins and now finds himself on the outs in Baltimore as the O’s look to get some reinforcements for a beleaguered pitching staff. Bowman actually came to the O’s last summer after opting out of a minor league deal with Minnesota. The Orioles eventually passed him through waivers but re-signed him on a new minor league deal after he opted for free agency.

Baltimore selected Bowman to the major league roster late in spring training. He’s been a heavily used arm for manager Brandon Hyde, appearing in 16 of the Orioles’ 35 games (46%). The journeyman right-hander posted a sparkling 1.98 ERA through his first dozen appearances but has hit a rough patch of late, surrendering seven runs across his past four outings. Overall, Bowman carries a 5.19 earned run average with a sub-par 15.2% strikeout rate but a terrific 3.8% walk rate.

Bowman pitched for four teams in 2024, including both the Twins and Orioles. He’s now suited up for seven teams across parts of seven major league seasons. In 233 1/3 frames at the MLB level, he’s produced a 4.24 ERA, 18.7% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. Bowman doesn’t miss many bats and has never thrown hard — his 91.3 mph average on his sinker in 2025 is an exact match for his career mark — but he’s consistently proven capable of avoiding hard contact. Opponents have mustered a putrid 86.3 mph average exit velocity against Bowman in his career and posted similarly bleak barrel and hard-hit rates of 5.1% and 29.6%, respectively.

Because he’s out of minor league options, Bowman couldn’t simply be optioned to Norfolk to bring up a fresh arm. The O’s will have five days to find a trade partner for him before they have to place him on outright or release waivers (which is another 48-hour process). He could be waived at any point prior to that, of course, but his DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week.

Orioles Designate Tucker Davidson For Assignment

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The Orioles announced this afternoon that they’ve designated left-hander Tucker Davidson for assignment. Right-hander Colin Selby was recalled to the big league roster in Davidson’s place, and the club’s 40-man roster now stands at 39.

Davidson, 28, came to the Orioles last year when the club claimed him off waivers from the Royals. He was promptly outrighted off the 40-man roster later in the offseason and remained with the club in the minor leagues throughout 2024, putting up a decent 3.89 ERA in 115 2/3 innings of work during that time while swinging between Norfolk’s rotation and bullpen.

Those results are generally much better than the ones he’s garnered in the majors throughout his career. The lefty surrendered a 5.11 ERA in 37 innings of work for the Braves from his debut in 2020 until his departure at the 2022 trade deadline, when he was traded to Anaheim as part of the trade that brought Raisel Iglesias to Atlanta. He spent parts of two seasons with the Angels and struggled badly. In 68 1/3 innings of work spread between 18 relief appearances and eight starts, Davidson was shelled to the tune of a 6.72 ERA with a 4.93 FIP. That led the Angels to part ways with the lefty, and he finished the 2023 campaign with the Royals. He posted a 5.03 ERA in Kansas City before the aforementioned waiver claim that brought him to Baltimore last offseason.

Going forward, the Orioles will have one week to pass Davidson through waivers. While he’s likely to clear waivers, he’ll become a minor league free agent this winter if not added back to the 40-man roster before free agency opens in November. Should he reach the open market, Davidson could garner some attention as a minor league depth option from the left side thanks to his ability to pitch both out of the bullpen and in the starting rotation.

Orioles Option Trevor Rogers, Designate Bruce Zimmermann

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The Orioles announced a series of roster moves today. Infielder Emmanuel Rivera, recently claimed off waivers, has been added to the roster. They also selected the contract of right-hander Matt Bowman and recalled lefty Nick Vespi. To open spots for those three, they optioned left-hander Trevor Rogers, right-hander Colin Selby and infielder Liván Soto to Triple-A Norfolk. To open a 40-man spot for Bowman, lefty Bruce Zimmermann has been designated for assignment.

Just over three weeks ago, the Orioles acquired Rogers from the Marlins in a pre-deadline trade, sending youngsters Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers to Miami. The O’s have been having a strong season overall but keeping the rotation intact has been a challenge. All three of Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells required surgery to address their respective ulnar collateral ligaments in their elbows earlier this year. To bolster the group, they added both Zach Eflin and Rogers prior to the deadline.

It was a buy-low situation with Rogers, who had posted a 2.64 earned run average with the Marlins in 2021 but struggled since. He dealt with various injuries in 2022 and finished that year with a 5.47 ERA. In 2023, he was only able to make four starts due to a left biceps strain and a partial tear in his right lat.

Here in 2024, he was healthy enough to stay on the mound, making 21 starts for the Fish prior to the deal. His velocity was down but the results were passable, as he had a 4.53 ERA in those 21 outings. A few days after the deal, the lefty said he had already received more analytical information relating to his pitch mix and mechanics than during his entire time with the Marlins, per Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner on X. Perhaps the O’s felt there was a path to getting Rogers back to his 2021 form via those analytics, or simply him getting healthier as he moved further away from his injuries.

It has not gone to plan so far, as Rogers hasn’t fared well in his first four starts with the O’s. He has allowed 15 earned runs in 19 innings, leading to a 7.11 ERA. His 13.3% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate are both well below league average and nowhere near his previous work.

It seems the O’s have decided that a reset in Triple-A is in order. Perhaps that will give him a chance to work on their suggested tweaks in a lower-stakes environment. He can still be retained via arbitration for two more seasons after this one, so they have some time to figure out a path forward. This isn’t a service time manipulation situation, as he already crossed four years of service time earlier this year.

Still, it’s obviously less than ideal for the club to be subtracting one of its key deadline pickups in the middle of a playoff race. The O’s are still in comfortable position with a 74-54 record, just half a game behind the Yankees in the East and currently possessing the top Wild Card spot. But the Royals and Twins are just 2.5 games back and the Red Sox trail the O’s by only six games, so nothing is set in stone with more than a month left to play.

The rotation continues to be an issue as now both Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez are on the injured list, Eflin due to some shoulder discomfort and Rodriguez due to a lat strain. With Rogers now intentionally removed from the mix, the rotation is now down to Corbin Burnes, Dean Kremer, Albert Suárez, Cole Irvin and Cade Povich. Burnes is great but there are plenty of questions with the others. Kremer and Irvin are essentially back-end guys, with the latter having been passed through waivers a few weeks ago, recently being added back to the roster. Suárez keeps putting up good numbers but is a 34-year-old journeyman who is in the majors for the first time since 2017. Povich has just nine major league starts and a 5.77 ERA in those.

Ideally, the club will be hoping to get Rodriguez and Eflin back for the end of the regular season and then the playoffs as well, but they will have to try to get by with this group for now. Perhaps Rogers can also work his way back into the mix with some quick adjustments in the minors, but he can’t be recalled for the next 15 days unless replacing someone going on the injured list.

Bowman, 33, was signed to a minor league deal a week ago. That pact contained an upward mobility clause today and an opt-out next week. It seems the O’s didn’t want him to get away or simply wanted to add some a fresh arm to their bullpen, so he’s been added to their roster today.

As soon as he gets into a game for the O’s, it will be his fourth club of the year, as he’s already suited up for the Twins, Diamondbacks and Mariners. Since he’s out of options, he’s continually been squeezed out of his opportunities. Whenever he has cleared waivers, he has elected free agency and signed a new deal with fresh opt-outs, seemingly having a strong preference for flexibility.

While bouncing around, he has thrown 15 major league innings with a 5.40 ERA, 15.2% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate. But he’s also thrown 33 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.87 ERA, 31.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and grounders on more than half of the balls in play he’s allowed.

That minor league performance has seemingly led to plenty of interest around the league, with Baltimore being his latest stop. If he can perform like that at the major league level, he could be a nice asset for a Baltimore bullpen that hasn’t been strong this year. Their relief corps has a collective 4.18 ERA, putting them in the bottom third of the league. If things click, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration, but based on the way his year has gone, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bouncing around again soon.

Zimmermann, 29, has been in the Orioles’ organization for more than six years now. He came over from Atlanta in the July 2018 trade that sent Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day the other way. He appeared in 38 games over the 2020-23 seasons, logging 158 1/3 innings with a 5.57 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 41.1% ground ball rate.

He’s been on optional assignment for all of 2024 so far, having tossed 69 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.41 ERA, 21.7% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. With the trade deadline now passed, the O’s will have to put Zimmermann on waivers in the coming days.

This is his final option year, so he’ll be out of options next year. A claiming club could potentially stash him in the minors for the rest of this season but he would need an active roster spot by next year. He has less than two years of service time, so any claiming club could control him for five seasons beyond this one. If he were to pass through outright waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the O’s in a non-roster capacity.

Royals Trade Colin Selby To Orioles

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The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve acquired right-hander Colin Selby from the Royals in exchange for cash. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Kansas City had recently designated Selby for assignment. The O’s transferred Kyle Bradish from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Selby, 26, pitched just three big league innings for the Royals this season, allowing a pair of runs in that short time. Kansas City acquired Selby from Pittsburgh back in April, sending minor league southpaw Connor Oliver to the Pirates in return. Selby pitched 24 innings with the Bucs last year but was tagged for 24 runs in that time. To date, he’s allowed 26 earned runs in 27 MLB frames.

Obviously, that’s a poor track record but also a small sample at the game’s top level. But the former 16th-round pick is no stranger to minor league success, having posted excellent numbers at the Double-A level in addition to some decent but inconsistent results in Triple-A. Selby notched a sub-4.00 ERA with a 30.8% strikeout rate for Pittsburgh’s Triple-A club last season but has struggled to a 5.32 ERA in 20 Triple-A frames between Indianapolis and Omaha this year.

Missing bats is nothing new for Selby, who’s punched out 25.6% of his career minor league opponents. That includes some lesser strikeout rates in the lower minors when he was still working as a starter. Since moving up to the Double-A level and shifting exclusively to a relief role, Selby has fanned 29.8% of the batters he’s faced. His bat-missing arsenal, as is often the case, is accompanied by troubling command woes, however. He’s dished out a free pass to 12.5% of his combined Double-A/Triple-A opponents and plunked another five hitters. Between those walks and HBPs, he’s given first base away to about 14% of the hitters he’s faced in the upper minors.

Selby is in the second of three minor league option years and doesn’t yet have a full season of MLB service under his belt. If the O’s can get him straightened out, he’ll be optionable again next season and under club control for a full six seasons. There’s quite a ways to go before that’s even a plausible situation, but Baltimore has a knack for coaxing strong relief work from unheralded acquisitions. Their track record isn’t spotless, of course, but the O’s have unlocked next-level performances from Yennier Cano, Danny Coulombe, Cionel Perez and Jacob Webb, among others, despite middling to nonexistent track records at their time of acquisition.

Royals Activate Kris Bubic From 60-Day IL, DFA Colin Selby

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The Royals announced this afternoon that they’ve designated right-hander Colin Selby for assignment. The move clears a spot for left-hander Kris Bubic, who has been activated from the 60-day injured list, on the 40-man roster. Lefty Walter Pennington was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Bubic on the active roster.

Selby, 26, made his MLB debut with the Pirates last year and struggled to a 9.00 ERA despite a 4.80 FIP in 24 innings of work. He remained on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason but was designated for assignment in early April when the Pirates needed to clear space for catcher Joey Bart on their 40-man roster. The Royals promptly swung a trade to acquire Selby later that week, and he’s been in the Royals organization ever since. The righty made just two appearances total for Kansas City at the big league level where he surrendered three runs (two earned) on two walks and two hits without recording a strikeout.

The majority of Selby’s season has come at the Triple-A level, where he’s pitched to a 5.32 ERA in 22 innings of work between his time with the Pirates and Royals. Those mediocre results have come despite an excellent 29.5% strikeout rate at the level, as Selby has been held back by an elevated 11.6% walk rate. Selby’s penchant for giving up free passes has followed him at the big league level as well, as he’s walked 13.4% of the batters he’s faced in his 27 innings of big league experience while striking out a decent 23.6%. The Royals will have one week to work out a trade regarding Selby or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he clears waivers, the club will have the opportunity to outright him to Triple-A, where he’d serve as a non-roster depth option.

Selby’s departure makes way for Bubic, who is making his return to the big leagues after undergoing Tommy John surgery back in April of last year. The 26-year-old was selected by the Royals with the 40th overall selection in the 2018 draft and made his big league debut with the club back in 2020 as a starting pitcher. In three years as a member of the club’s rotation, Bubic generally posted results commensurate with those of a typical back-end starter. He pitched to a 4.89 ERA (90 ERA+) with a similar 4.93 FIP in 309 innings of work. While he struck out a decent 20% of batters faced, his 10.5% walk rate was on the high side and limited his effectiveness.

Bubic entered the 2023 season once again as a part of the rotation in Kansas City, and through three starts he appeared as though he may have been turning a corner. His 3.94 ERA, while it was 17% better than league average, wasn’t exactly anything to write home about. That being said, his peripheral numbers suggested the former top prospect may have been in a much better place than previous years. He was striking out 23.5% of batters faced on the year and, most importantly, was showcasing much stronger control with a minuscule 2.9% walk rate that left him with an excellent 2.63 FIP. Unfortunately, Bubic’s season was cut short by surgery before he or the Royals could see how sustainable that improved control truly was.

The lefty began his rehab process this year once again in a starting role, but recently moved into the bullpen near the end of his rehab assignment. That likely offers a hint as to the role he’ll be used in now that he’s back in Kansas City, as the Royals figure to stick with a rotation consisting of Seth Lugo, Cole Ragans, Brady Singer, Michael Wacha, and Alec Marsh for the foreseeable future. While Bubic is seemingly poised to join the club in a multi-inning relief role, he’ll nonetheless look to carry over the strong results he achieved during his rehab assignment in Triple-A over to the majors. The lefty made nine appearances (five starts) at the highest level of the minors during his rehab, and pitched to a 2.63 with a 25.4% strikeout rate and an 8.8% walk rate in 27 1/3 innings of work.

Royals Notes: Marsh, Lynch, Selby, Hernandez

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The Royals have been without right-hander Alec Marsh for just over a week now, but manager Matt Quatraro told reporters yesterday (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) that even though Marsh is expected to throw just 60-65 pitches in a rehab start today, the team is hopeful he’ll be able to return to the big league rotation after just one rehab appearance assuming today’s outing goes well.

That timeline would put Marsh, 26 later this month, in line for a minimum stay on the injured list and line him up to take the ball in Anaheim against the Angels on Friday. If the righty is able to return after a minimum stint, it would provide a huge boost to the Royals as they look to capitalize on a hot start that has seen them go 20-14 to this point in the season, putting them just 1.5 games behind the Guardians for the AL Central lead.

Prior to his placement on the shelf due to an elbow contusion late last month, Marsh had been a big part of the club’s success. Through five starts this season, the right-hander sports a sterling 2.70 ERA and a 3.26 FIP in spite of a lackluster 15.9% strikeout rate. While he’s posted a strong 6.5% walk rate to this point in the season, the youngster’s .235 BABIP allowed and minuscule 3.2% home run/fly ball ratio both suggest that regression could be on the way for him, as do his 4.66 xERA and 4.39 xFIP. Even in the event that Marsh’s results regress back to that of a mid-to-back of the rotation arm, however, it would still be a substantial improvement over his rookie campaign. Marsh struggled badly in 74 1/3 innings of work in the majors last year, posting a 5.69 ERA with a near-matching 5.70 FIP despite a 24.9% strikeout rate.

While Marsh prepares for his return to the big leagues, the Royals announced today that they’ve recalled left-hander Daniel Lynch IV, optioning right-hander Colin Selby to make room for Lynch on the active roster. Jaylon T. Thompson of the Kansas City Star relayed last night that Lynch was slated to start this afternoon’s game against the Rangers. Lynch, 27, was once a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport but has struggled at the big league level to this point in his career, with a 5.19 ERA and 4.79 FIP in 252 innings of work across 51 starts dating back to his debut during the 2021 season. Those numbers include nine starts at the big league level last year where he posted a 4.64 ERA and 5.17 FIP amid rotator cuff and shoulder issues.

Lynch returned to action during Spring Training but ultimately lost out on the fifth starter role in Kansas City to Marsh, leaving him relegated to the Triple-A level to open the season. He’s struggled badly through six starts at the level this season, posting a 5.86 ERA in 27 2/3 innings of work while striking out just 17.3% of batters faced. Nonetheless, the Royals will turn to him for today’s start, where he’ll take on the tough assignment of facing the reigning World Series champion Rangers.

Marsh isn’t the only pitcher who’s making progress in their attempt to return from the injured list. Per MLB.com’s Injury Tracker, right-hander Carlos Hernandez is beginning to ramp up his activity during a rehab assignment at the Triple-A level after missing the start of the season due to a shoulder impingement. The Royals have mostly enjoyed steady production from their bullpen this season thanks to veteran additions such as John Schreiber, Tyler Duffy, and Nick Anderson, but righty Matt Sauer has struggled badly in a long relief role to this point in the season and the healthy return of Hernandez, who struck out 25.7% of batters faced last year en route to a solid 4.28 FIP, could offer Kansas City a more reliable option for length out of the bullpen.

Royals Acquire Colin Selby From Pirates

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The Royals have acquired right-hander Colin Selby from the Pirates in exchange for minor league left-hander Connor Oliver.  Both teams have announced the trade, and Kansas City further noted that left-hander Josh Taylor has been shifted to the 60-day injured list to create space for Selby on the 40-man roster.

Pittsburgh designated Selby for assignment earlier this week, and today’s trade ends Selby’s time with the Bucs after parts of seven pro seasons.  A 16th-round pick for Pittsburgh in the 2018 draft, Selby has pitched at Triple-A Indianapolis in each of the last three seasons, with a solid 3.57 ERA and a strong 29.22% strikeout rate over 35 1/3 innings at the top rung of the minor league ladder.  Selby’s strikeout totals have spiked upwards since he became a full-time relief pitcher in 2021, and he has posted very high grounder rates, including a superb 61.2% groundball rate in 30 1/3 Triple-A frames last season.

Control is Selby’s main issue, as his walks have shot upwards along with his missed bats.  The right-hander has a 16.23% walk rate during his Triple-A career, as well as a 13.2% walk rate over his 24 career innings in the majors.  Selby posted a 9.00 ERA in his MLB debut last season, hampered by his free passes and four home runs allowed in his small sample size as a big leaguer — even with a 48.5% grounder rate against Major League batters, Selby couldn’t limit the damage when he allowed fly balls.

K.C. was intrigued enough by Selby’s potential to arrange a trade, and the 26-year-old will now head to Triple-A Omaha so the Royals’ pitching development staff can get a closer look.  The Royals felt strongly enough to use a 40-man roster spot on Selby, though Taylor’s uncertain health situation created some flexibility on the team’s roster situation.

Taylor developed both a musculocutaneous nerve issue and left biceps soreness during Spring Training, leading the Royals to place him on the 15-day IL to begin the season.  The move to the 60-day IL doesn’t reset Taylor’s clock from its initial retroactive placement of March 25, but it does mean that he’ll now be out of action until at least the last week of May.

It’s another tough setback for Taylor, who has been plagued with back problems for the better part of three years.  He missed the 2022 season entirely and underwent surgery last summer to address a herniated disc in his back, hopefully solving that issue once and for all.  Between the back injuries, a shoulder impingement, and elbow tendinitis, Taylor has appeared in just 86 games and thrown 72 2/3 innings since the start of the 2020 season.  This is Taylor’s second year in Kansas City, as the Royals acquired him from the Red Sox for Adalberto Mondesi in January 2023.

Oliver is a 22-year-old southpaw drafted in the 17th round in 2023, and his pro resume thus far consists of a single inning with the Royals’ complex league team last year.  The Miami of Ohio product had a 3.89 ERA in 14 starts and 78 2/3 innings in his final year of college ball.

Pirates Acquire Joey Bart

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April 3: It’s right knee inflammation for Delay, per Stumpf.

April 2, 9:41PM: Delay is going to be placed on the 10-day injured list, according to MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf (via X).  This will open up room for Bart on the active roster, and while the nature of Delay’s injury isn’t yet known, it now explains the Pirates’ interest in acquiring Bart.

8:32PM: The Pirates have acquired catcher Joey Bart from the Giants for minor league righty Austin Strickland.  FanSided’s Robert Murray (X link) was the first to report Bart’s move to Pittsburgh, while NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic (via X) reported Strickland as the return piece of the deal.  The Pirates announced that right-hander Colin Selby was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for Bart.

The second overall pick of the 2018 draft, Bart has hit .219/.288/.335 over 503 plate appearances since making his Major League debut in 2020.  Buster Posey’s decision to opt out of the 2020 pandemic-shortened season gave Bart an early look in the bigs, and after playing in only two MLB games in 2021, it seemed like Bart would get a clear shot at becoming the Giants’ next catching stalwart after Posey’s retirement.

However, Bart’s struggles in 2022 resulted in Curt Casali and Austin Wynns getting a good chunk of the playing time behind the plate.  With some injuries also setting Bart back last season, Patrick Bailey (himself a first-round pick in 2020) stepped in and seized the starting catching job, which made it seem like only a matter of time before the Giants moved on from Bart entirely.  That reality came to pass last weekend when Bart was designated for assignment, as San Francisco hadn’t been able to find a trade partner during the offseason.

There is some irony that Bart is now heading to Pittsburgh, as the Bucs seemingly had an overload of “catchers of the future” just a few months ago.  With Henry Davis as the first overall pick of the 2021 draft and Endy Rodriguez emerging as a top-100 prospect, it seemed like the Pirates were considering using Davis in the outfield in order to use Rodriguez behind the plate and get both players into their lineup.  Those plans changed when Rodriguez tore his UCL in winter ball action, and he’ll miss the entire 2024 season recovering from surgery.  Davis has now started most of the Bucs’ games at catcher this season, with Jason Delay working as a backup.

This arrangement comes in the wake of Yasmani Grandal’s season-opening IL stint due to plantar fasciitis, as Grandal was signed to a one-year, $2.5MM deal to assume at least a part-time role behind the plate.  Since Bart is out of minor league options, he’ll have to stay on the Pirates’ active roster or else face the DFA wire again if Pittsburgh wants to send him down to Triple-A via an outright assignment.

Given how Grandal’s return will shake this catching situation up once more, it would seem like there’s plenty of fluidity within what the Pirates might do behind the plate.  Delay could be sent to Triple-A, essentially replacing Ali Sanchez (who elected free agency last weekend) as the top depth option in the minors.  Or, Davis might conceivably go to Triple-A if the Pirates want to let him work on his catching defense in a less-pressurized environment than the big leagues.  There’s even some chance Pittsburgh could also perhaps use Davis, Delay, and Bart on the 26-man roster, with Davis getting work at DH or in the outfield in order to create playing time for the other two catchers.

Selby posted a 9.00 ERA over 24 innings for the Pirates last season, in his first taste of MLB action.  The righty was a 16th-round pick for the Bucs in the 2018 draft, and he has worked almost exclusively as a reliever since the start of the 2021 season.  Scouts regard the hard-throwing Selby as having plenty of stuff but with shaky control, as evidenced with his 30.8% strikeout rate and 16.5% walk rate over 30 1/3 innings with Triple-A Indianapolis last season, en route to a 3.86 ERA.

Over Selby’s 24 Major League frames, he had a 26.3% strikeout rate, but again struggled to limit free passes in posting a 13.2BB%.  It seems like there’s a decent chance Selby might be claimed off waivers by an interested team, as the 26-year-old seems to have some upside if he can limit his walks.

For San Francisco, there’s some obvious disappointment in the official end of the Bart era, as the team ended up getting very little return on a second overall pick.  Hindsight is always 20-20, though it’s easy to wonder what president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi might’ve been able to obtain for Bart had the catcher been traded earlier in his career, though rival executives might’ve also wondered if something was up if Zaidi had been too eager to offer a seeming top prospect.  It is also fair to wonder if Bart’s career path might’ve been different if he hadn’t suffered hand and thumb injuries after being hit by pitches in 2019, or if he’d had the benefit of a smoother minor league development path in a world where either the pandemic doesn’t happen, or if the Giants didn’t move him so quickly to the majors.

The return for Bart is a lottery ticket in Strickland, who was an eighth-round pick for the Pirates in last summer’s draft.  The University of Kentucky product has yet to begin his pro career, and Baseball America’s scouting report cites his three-pitch mix, headlined by a fastball that usually sits in the 93-94mph range.  Strickland generates a lot of grounders and he has mostly worked as a multi-inning reliever, so this might hold appeal to a Giants team that has traditionally been creative with its usage of pitchers.

Pirates To Promote Colin Selby For MLB Debut

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3:55pm: The Pirates have now made these two moves official, with right-hands Osvaldo Bido and Yerry De Los Santos optioned in corresponding moves.

11:37am: The Pirates are set to recall right-hander Colin Selby from Triple-A Indianapolis, reports Jason Mackey of  the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They’re also planning to recall Thomas Hatch, whom they just claimed off waivers a few days ago. Both players are on the 40-man roster already.

Selby, 25, was the Pirates’ 16th-round pick back in 2018 and put himself on the prospect map with a particularly strong showing in Double-A last year, wherein he tossed 32 2/3 innings of 2.20 ERA ball with a 29.7% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 53.1% ground-ball rate. Baseball America ranked him 26th among Pirates prospects on their latest update, crediting him with three plus pitches — fastball in the upper 90s, slider in the upper 80s, curveball in the low 80s — but below-average command.

The 2023 season has been a strong one for the hard-throwing Selby. After a quick three-inning stop in Double-A, he was bumped up for his Triple-A debut, which has resulted in 30 1/3 frames of 3.86 ERA ball. He’s sporting a gaudy 30.8% strikeout rate and massive 61.2% ground-ball rate in Indianapolis, but he’s also walked 16.5% of his opponents (and plunked three as well). In his 30 1/3 innings at Triple-A, Selby has put 25 runners aboard either by way of walk or hit-by-pitch. It’s a power arsenal, but there’s some clear refinement to be done.

As for Hatch, he’ll be making his team debut and logging his first action with a team other than the Blue Jays, who designated him for assignment earlier this month. Hatch, a 2016 third-round pick, has pitched to a 5.28 ERA in 44 1/3 big league innings, fanning 21.3% of his opponents against a 12.4% walk rate.

While he’s worked primarily as a starter in Triple-A, Hatch has moved to the bullpen for the majority of his work in the upper minors this season. He’s pitched to a 4.40 ERA in 30 games — 45 innings — and notched a 27.8% strikeout rate and 10.8% walk rate. Hatch has typically kept the ball on the ground at average or better rates in Double-A and Triple-A, and this year’s 4.40 ERA in Triple-A is right in line with the 4.45 mark he’s posted in 240 2/3 total innings at that level.

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